Regardless of What our Lips Profess

Luke 23:44-49 ESV

“It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, ‘Certainly this man was innocent!’ And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.”

Jesus Christ, who is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – willingly gave his life up for us on that cross to die for our sins. Why? It wasn’t just to forgive us our sins. It wasn’t just so we can go to heaven when we die and not to hell. Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died to deliver us out of our slavery (addiction) to sin so that we will follow him in obedience to his commands and live holy lives, pleasing to God.

Jesus Christ died on that cross so that we might become the righteousness of God, but not just in status, but in practice. And he died so that we would now live for him and no longer for ourselves. For he shed his blood for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our slavery (addiction) to sin so that we would now honor him with our lives, so that we would walk (in conduct, in practice) no longer according to the flesh, but now according to the Spirit and according to the will of God.

[1 Peter 2:24; Romans 6:1-23; 2 Corinthians 5:15,21; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 8:1-14; Luke 9:23-26; Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 4:17-24]

And as those of us who are Christ’s followers, we are also to lay down our lives to see others go free from their slavery to sin and to now walk in holiness and in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord and to his commands under the New Covenant. So, how do we do this? We do this by sharing the truth of the gospel and not the lies that so many are spreading today. And we do this by refuting the lies of the enemy and by telling the people the truth of what God’s word teaches in opposition to those lies.

And how is that laying down our lives for others? It is because when we follow Jesus’ example, and we do the kinds of things that he did, and when we speak the things that he taught to others, and that his NT apostles taught, we are largely going to be rejected and cast aside and regarded as unworthy of any kind of consideration of what we are sharing. And who is it that is going to reject us? Mostly others who call themselves Christians who oppose what we are teaching or sharing from God’s Word.

Why? Because so many of them are being taught lies cleverly disguised as truth, and so they are believing the lies, and they are being convinced to reject the truth, even if it is a direct quote from any reputable translation of the Scriptures. And even when, compared with other Scriptures, it agrees. And even if it is being taught in the correct context. And even if that truth is repeated for us over again all throughout the New Testament, they will reject it and its messengers because it doesn’t fit with what they want to believe.

And that is the same exact thing that Jesus Christ faced when he lived on this earth. For it was his own people and those who professed to know and to worship God who opposed him and who wanted him dead and silenced. And they were the ones who hounded him and who tried to trip him up with his words, and who falsely accused him of wrongdoing and who called for his crucifixion and who insisted that he be killed even when the secular leaders of his day found no fault in him, and when Pilate wanted to release him.

So, when we share the truth of the gospel – the whole counsel of God – and we do not shy away from proclaiming the truth and from exposing the lies for what they are, we are going to be hated and persecuted like Jesus was. And his enemies will be our enemies. And his enemies include many professing Christians who reject his teachings and who will not submit themselves to the cross of Christ and to death to sin and to living to God and to his righteousness. For they believe they don’t have to.

Nonetheless, if we reject the truth and if we embrace the lies, and so we continue in deliberate and in habitual sin, and not in walks of holiness, and not in righteousness and in obedience to our Lord, in practice, then we have to know what the Scriptures teach on that. For they teach that we do not know God, in truth, we are not in fellowship with him, we are not born of God, but we are of the devil, and we are going to die in our sins, and heaven is not our eternal destiny, regardless of what our lips profess. 

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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